The Truth About the Law of Attraction

It doesn't exist!

The law of attraction (LOA) is the belief that the universe creates and provides for you that which your thoughts are focused on. It is believed by many to be a universal law by which “Like Always Attracts like.” The results of positive thoughts are always positive consequences. The same holds true for negative thoughts always leading to bad outcomes. But the LOA is much more than generalizations; thinking about red Lamborghinis will bring you red Lamborghinis – always. To the believers, questioning the validity of the LOA is akin to heresy and blasphemy; it creates religious fervor. To the uninitiated, it may seem silly to discuss even the possibility that such a law could exist.

The first article about this was in Psychology Today - “Throw Away Your Vision Board.” After a quarter million hits and much hate mail, I wanted to make sure that I had a thorough LOA understanding so I read every book from the originators of the law in the late 1800s and became a certified “Advanced Practitioner of the Law of Attraction” by one of the authors of "The Secret." I then wrote “Throw Away Your Vision Board 2.” This time the feedback was a little more positive. I recently published the book, Throw Away Your Vision Board: The Truth About the Law of Attraction. This article will summarize 14 reasons why there is no LOA.

As I am starting to receive many emails regarding this article, realize that I may not be able to answer all of the comments. In addition, if you are close-minded and believe that the LOA exists irrespective of data or information to the contrary, then this article is not for you. Thanks for visiting - now you can go back to your LOA abundance. This article is intended for those who are new to the LOA, those who don't know about it, and those who have not succeeded in using it and are open-minded and looking for answers.

Source: graphicStock with permission

Source: graphic stock with permission

1) Metaphysical Pseudoscience: LOA proponents claim that it is based on scientific theory. It is at best, metaphysical pseudoscience with conclusions based on erroneous, unfounded, and often incorrect assumptions. The list of incorrect scientific information that is suggested by LOA creators is way too long for article (more details check out “Throw Away Your Vision Board book.” Here are a few of their scientific truths.”

a) Electrons have positive charges. b) In physics “Like always attracts like.” [magnets?] c) Thinking burns up brain matter. d) Only ether (not air) conducts light and thought. e) Ether connects all minds together. When 2 or more minds come close together, “mind stuff” mixes, and creates a third, “master mind.” f) Higher altitudes have more oxygen, better air for breathing. g) Vibrating sound more quickly turns it into heat, then light, than thought. h) Thought energy is 40,000 Hz to 4 X 1014 Hz or above 7 x 1014 Hz. In reality brain waves are slow 1 – 100 Hz. i) The universe hears nouns, not adjectives or qualifiers or only sees pictures of your thoughts. j) Every thought you have (about 70,000/day) has a specific frequency or wavelength of energy. “Thought Stuff” leaves your brain, travels through the ether around us and causes “Formless Stuff” to create whatever you are thinking about.

Why are any of these important? Because it is these “scientific truths” that form the scientific basis for the LOA.

2) No Purpose: Material abundance and wealth are the most important manifestations to attract. The Universe sets your life purpose. You pick the specific goal based on wants; not values. This is one reason there is less passion driving goal completion because these are not deep-seated principled goals.

3) No Action: The only way to manifest your thoughts into things is to believe and live as if you’ve already accomplished your goal. LOA guru Esther Hicks said, “You did not come into this environment to create through action.” Action shows the Universe that you know you don’t have it and that you doubt its ability to manifest it for you. While it is obvious to most that action is a necessary component of goal achievement, it is completely inconsistent with a belief in a LOA.

Source: graphicStock with permission

4) No Plan: If the best way for me to achieve my goals is to live as if I’ve already achieved them, then there is no reason to make further plans to do so! Making plans shows the universe that you doubt its ability and lack faith. Doubt is negative and you will then attract more negative and not get your desired item. In the book The Secret, Jack Canfield proposed, “Our job is not to figure out the how.” “…trust that the Universe will figure out how to manifest it.” Studies show that this way of thinking results in greater short term satisfaction, but less motivation and lower chance of achieving goals. Curious that Jack Canfield’s website sells a program to teach you how to make an “Action Plan.”

5) No Date: When you live as if you have already accomplished your goals, there is no reason to establish deadlines or timelines. As Secret author Rhonda Byrne stated, “It takes no time for the Universe to manifest what you want.” While goal setting research supports the importance of establishing timelines to achieve success, LOA experts assert that it would be inappropriate to set a deadline for the universe to achieve your goal.

6) No Challenges: Challenges are considered negative thoughts and are to be avoided. Besides, if you’ve theoretically already achieved your goal, there could not be any challenges. As Esther Hicks, has stated, “Once you have recognized that thinking of what you do not want only attracts more of what you do not want into your experience, controlling your thoughts will not be a difficult thing…” There are many goal-achieving benefits to acknowledging and planning for challenges that may arise. Unfortunately, a belief in a law of attraction does not allow for you to accomplish this.

7) No Compassion: Don’t get involved with anything negative like charity or helping the needy. This will attract more negativity and poverty. Wallace Wattles, a LOA founder wrote, “Do not talk about poverty; do not investigate it, or concern yourself with it. Do not spend your time in charitable work, or charity movements, all charity only tends to perpetuate the wretchedness it aims to eradicate.” and “Give your attention wholly to riches; ignore poverty.” Rhonda Byrne in The Secret takes this a step further, “If you see people who are overweight, do not observe them…If you think or talk about diseases, you will become sick. What you think or surround yourself with – good or bad, is what you will bring upon yourself.” If you believe in a LOA avoid any of the “helping or health” professions such as physician, nurse, hospital worker, clergy, psychologist, police officer, paramedic, etc. Avoid professions in which you deal with poor people such as accountant, mortgage broker, banker, lawyer, etc. While research shows that charitable work, empathy and volunteering is beneficial to both the giver and receiver, avoid these things if you believe in a LOA.

8) No Support: Since you will always attract what you think about, you need to avoid any type of support groups for people with mental or physical illnesses or for people with similar experiences. Research shows that support groups such as alcoholics anonymous, weight watchers, or breast cancer support are beneficial. The LOA incorrectly predicts that you will make your problems worse.

9) Mindless: To invoke a LOA, you need to live continuously in an unreal future as you anticipate that it will be once you’ve achieved your goal and only visualize a successful outcome. This shows faith in the universe. Thinking about plans, actions, and challenges are discordant and negative so skip the process and focus on the result; live without regard to the present. This is the definition of mindlessness. Being fully aware of and attentive to the here and now is mindfulness and has been shown to produce powerful health and wellness benefits such as greater life satisfaction and happiness.

10) Blame Yourself: As the LOA is supposed to be a perfect, universal law, positivity should ALWAYS attract more positivity. The corollary of this is that you alone are completely responsible for any goal that was not successfully achieved, no matter how unrealistic the goal. This assumes that you not only control your thoughts and actions, but also those of everyone around you…and nature. The fact is, that you don’t. Sorry to break that to you.

11) Blame the Victim: The only reason that anything bad could ever happen to you is because you were thinking bad thoughts. If someone rear-ends you in a car – 100% your fault. If you get breast cancer – 100% your fault (not genetics). If you get raped or abused – 100% your fault. Children getting killed by terrorists, sick babies in the intensive care unit, victims of floods, hurricanes, natural disasters, the Holocaust – yes, their fault. We all know deep inside that this is ridiculous to even suggest. However, it is a basic, fundamental premise of the LOA. You NEVER attract something you are not thinking about. When anything bad happens to anyone, they are to blame. Don’t feel sorry for anyone who has cancer or a disease or starving children in poverty, they brought it on themselves. What causes obesity? Slow metabolism? No, fat thoughts. From LOA experts, “Disease cannot live in a body that’s in a healthy emotional state.” (Bob Proctor). “You cannot catch anything unless you think you can, and thinking you can is inviting it to you with your thought.” (From The Secret). “Good thoughts and actions can never produce bad results; bad thoughts and actions can never produce good results. Suffering is always the effect of wrong thought in some direction.” (James Allen). “If man will think only thoughts of perfect health, he can cause within himself the functioning of perfect health…” (Wallace Wattles). “Every individual creates every aspect of their experiences – we are in complete control of our health throughout our entire lives. There are no accidents.” (Esther Hicks).

Source: graphicStock with permission

12) We’re Not Perfect: The LOA is a “perfect law” and should result in a “perfect” life. We are told that no goal is too big if you can think it; there is no such thing as an unrealistic goal. From The Secret “You can think your way to the perfect state of health, the perfect body, the perfect weight, and eternal youth. You can bring it into being, through your consistent thinking of perfection.” Reality check -life is not perfect. It can be great, fantastic, amazing, incredible, even optimal. But perfect? Won’t happen. What’s the problem with this way of thinking? Why not expect perfection? Fantasizing and striving for perfect makes you feel better in the short term but actually reduces your chance of attaining your goals and results in more unhappiness and blaming. If you are only going to be satisfied with perfect results – perfect health, perfect body, perfect family, perfect marriage, perfect friendships, perfect kids, perfect house, perfect job, perfect life; you are in for a perfect disappointment. Research studies support this.

13) Placebo Effect: Placebos are inactive, ineffective substances to which a positive effect has been attributed. The greater your expectations and beliefs that something will be effective, the greater chance it has of creating a positive response. The mind is a powerful tool. We can increase or decrease our heart rate and blood pressure through visualization. A few individuals using a LOA have a firm belief that it will work and so it does. People tend to have more success with the LOA for smaller items for which they did not make a vision board; finding money on the street, getting a check in the mail, hearing from a long lost friend, etc. Is a belief in a law of attraction any better than rubbing a rabbit’s foot, tossing a coin in the fountain, or pulling apart a wishbone? Test it yourself, the answer is no!

14) Anecdotal Evidence: Evidence that the LOA is an effective way of attaining goals is anecdotal, non-scientific and self-reported. This fact does not prove it doesn’t exist. But closely scrutinize whether you want to invest time, money and energy into something that is ineffective and potentially harmful. People are much more likely to publish successes than failures. We also practice apophenia (the belief that there is meaning behind random data) when we focus on coincidences without regard to the much greater number of times that we do not experience coincidences. How many times did you think of that person and they didn’t call you? Of the two thousand people I thought of today, only two actually called. That’s not a great percentage – 0.1%. But if I think of it in terms of the people that called we get a different story. I thought of Bert and he called me – that’s 100%!

If you read LOA websites and posts, you’d guess that it is might be over 90% effective - everybody seems to be achieving their goals this way. Talk to experts who deal with the general public trying to use a LOA, there’s a completely different story. The failure rate is huge! In fact, LOA expert John Assaraf estimated that the success rate is about 0.1%!! We believe this number to be correct.

I’m sorry for the doom and gloom in this article. But these things need to be said. Millions of people are wasting time, money, and energy into an ineffective and detrimental system.

The next article will bring more light, happiness and smiling face emoji’s to the forefront when I discuss how to effectively set and attain goals.

Law of attration may not be or work the way it has been presented or understood so far. It has many inconsitencies base on our limiting paradigms and as well we are not fully conscious about how energy works. Even authors of the same books contradict from time to time in their books.
Napoleon Hill on Think and Grow Rich start with Faith, imagination, auto sugestion and more of the things that LOA preaches in terms of only mental action, but then by the end of the book start suggesting phisical actions to achieve success.
The majority of LOA writers suggest not to set a definite plan and even worst if you set a deadline. No time can be set to achieve your goals according to these because the universe is almighty but it cant manifest things right away.
Been said all that it does not mean that there isnt a truth behind all these, but it is all not been fully or properly explain as we (human beings) dont fully understand it yet and we are still very limited in terms of awareness.
So one thing is true for sure, after millions of individuals not being able to understand and apply mental power and "Law of attraction", people like this man have found a way to jump into the same train, tell passengers to leave that LOA train and come with him to a better one.
This is just a smart way to get more money of the pockets of millions of people who have not achieved their desires with LOA and still not helping 100% guaranteed with this "THIS ONE WORKS METHOD!!"

I suggest everyone to follow their believes because their is power in faith and dont just let them self be misleaded by all these guys that simply are just finding ways to get money out of your pockets.

Hello Rusking,
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
You are obviously well read on the subject of the law of attraction. As such I assume that all of your goals, and dreams have been fulfilled. You are probably sitting on your perfect yacht in the south of France sipping champagne and eating the finest caviar, waiting for your private jet to fly you back to your private island...
I appreciate that man is not advanced enough to understand "the secrets of the universe." However, this law of attraction is not a natural law. It was made up in the late 1800s by men looking to get rich. It was based on what we now know was incorrect science.
My questions:
1) If there is a LOA, why do babies get sick? Why do Tibetan monks get old? Why do happy, innocent children celebrating a birthday get murdered by terrorists?
2) If the LOA is a perfect universal law, then why do we need to understand it for it to work? Why is the success rate at achieving goals only 0.1%? Gravity works 100% of the time whether or not I believe in it Why stick with a scheme that is so ineffective?
3) "Outcome" visualization necessitated by the law of attraction is far less effective than is "process" visualization. This is not my opinion, this has been shown in scientific research.
4) Research also shows that visualizing a "perfect" relationship or "perfect" diet (as mandated by the law of attraction) leads to a greater chance of failure and less motivation.
There are many reasons, many of which I have discussed in the article to not be fooled into believing in a LOA. I am proposing a scientifically-based goal setting program, that is more effective (in scientific research studies) and more motivating.
I do not have a need to sell a program to people who feel they are benefitting from a belief in a LOA. Of course anybody that believes in the LOA shouldn't be reading articles that dispute it's validity - that's negative!

Hello,
I must say thanks to you as well because in order to fully understand or at least to get closer to understanding debate is needed. Everything must be questioned and not simply assumed.
Just like you I have been reading and searching as much information related to this topic since I first heard of it years ago. I have fulfilled most if my goals and dreams. But guess what!! None of them are related to yachts, eating caviar, sipping champagne or waiting for a private jet to fly me to my private island. None of those are goals in my life and all of them except for the private island and the yet I have experienced and enjoyed without even having to be a tycoon.
Instead I have been able to approach life in a different way. Learning to be thankful for the things I keep om receiving everyday, such as: The love of my kids, my friends, the overall experience in my journey and of course I have been throught bad ones and good ones. But all of those experience are an invaluable treasure to me. So dont assume everyone wants to attract the things you mentioned before.
Law of attraction its a label to something known and practiced from way before 1800s.
There was an inherent truth on this knowledge, unfortunately not everyone who claims to know or understand this truth really does. An based on your original post you investigated in the wrong places. These sources you mentioned were just means to get this current going but they are not definitely the absolute source of truth. Investigate a bit further and try to understand when you find it with an open mind.

My questions:
1) If there is a LOA, why do babies get sick? Good and bad is just an infinite scale of degrees and go way beyond our understanding.
Why do Tibetan monks get old?
Aging is not a bad process so theres no need to stop it. Aging and death is not equal destruction. Those are only transformation process
Why do happy, innocent children celebrating a birthday get murdered by terrorists? Who told you that manifestations and creation has to benevolent all the time. Understanding these from our lower perspective will never make sense at all. Just look above your perception level. The universe, for example: There is constant change and transformation in the process and it does involve creation and destruction on a balanced basis. Conciousness at a higher level just keep on manifesting whatever it focus its attention forth and it does it through everything that is at all times, nom stop. And all this manifestafion can be good or bad depending just on our human judgement.
2) If the LOA is a perfect universal law, then why do we need to understand it for it to work? We dont need to understand it in fact it is working all the time.
Why is the success rate at achieving goals only 0.1%?
Because we have not fully understand it
Gravity works 100% of the time whether or not I believe in it Why stick with a scheme that is so ineffective?
3) "Outcome" visualization necessitated by the law of attraction is far less effective than is "process" visualization. This is not my opinion, this has been shown in scientific research. It has been shown as well that mental preparation before certain events improve the possible outcome.
4) Research also shows that visualizing a "perfect" relationship or "perfect" diet (as mandated by the law of attraction) leads to a greater chance of failure and less motivation. Bad use of or misunderstanding of this process does but the correct application of it will undoubtly bring good results.
I AGREE with you when you invite people not to be fooled but, not to be fooled by just believing the first guy who introduces himself as an expert when it is obviously just leading you to pay 299 for a magical LOA course so to go deeper in the study of it before dismissing totally a life changing knowledge. Yours are valuable tools to but there is no need to be general and discriminate 100% something that you have not fully experience yourself.

And why not reading your opinions? Whats wrong with that? Just becausw we are not on the same page it does not mean that reading it I will be sucked into an unwanted parallel reality. In fact I enjoyed the thinking process that started after reading your article.

Wow,
Very thoughtful and extensive response.
I appreciate that your goals do not involve caviar or a large yacht. My goals also do not include these things. However, the founders of the law of attraction do focus on material wealth and abundance as the main reasons to invoke the law of attraction.
Law of attraction practiced prior to the 1800s. If you are referring to arcane practices in Babylon and Biblical times that we have little knowledge of, I am aware and have looked at these. If there are some specific and relevant references I would be interested in hearing them. As you believe in a LOA, most of what you hear will be filtered through this lens. As I now do not, most of what I hear will be seen through that lens.
In terms of science, one of the criteria for a theory to be useful is if it can be tested. The LOA can make predications and be tested. Thus, like any scientific theory, it is easier to disprove than to prove.
If we keep moving the bar and making multiple excuses why the LOA isn't working - we don't know how to use it, it's too powerful, there are secrets we don't understand, we weren't focused enough, etc. Then, even if it were real - which I do not believe it is, it would still be ineffective and of little value.

You are describing how it is desirable to have the good and bad. Death is good. Aging is good. Disease is good. I don't necessarily disagree with your premise. However, these are not the things that people typically want or desire to fill their lives. When you talk about creation and destruction being natural phenomenon, I agree. But invoking the law of attraction should stop the destruction part if that's what I want to attract. This is irrespective of it being objectively good or bad.

In terms of visualizing perfect outcomes, please reference a source . All of the blinded, randomized studies of which I am aware show that this LOA method is inferior and detrimental.
Athletes who successfully visualize spend minimal time on the perfect future and standing on a podium,. They spend an extensive amount of time visualizing the process and the journey, which should really be avoided if you are relying on a LOA.

We could go back and forth for years about this since your beliefs are based on faith and mine are based on proven effectiveness. You have faith in a system that sometimes seems to work for you and when it doesn't you adapt your thinking to say, this is obviously good for me and that's why I'm attracting it. I would rather make my list of goals based on my values and principles and attain them in an inspired (by a more complete visualization method) in an action-based system where I am in control..
I encourage you to read my Throw Away Your Vision Board book for more detailed analyses. My next book will elucidate Kay to Achieve Principles including the Principle of Attraction.
Thanks you Rusking for taking the time for your thoughtful comments.

My experience with one of the eBook I read, it explains the Meditation indeed has positive effects not only in the body but also in the mind, this book has explain how the people became rich using meditation and subconscious mind and Motivate You To Achieve Anything easily in your life,
Read the full article from here ( go2l.ink/manifest )

I understand your scepticism about the LOA as I am someone who is open minded about it. However, I kind of lost confidence in your arguments when you started to present basic premises about the LOA incorrectly. For example, the primary focus of the law of attraction is not about material wealth. It is about self development, self love and the journey to self completeness within the context of mindfulness and positive thinking. This is a premise that is widely used within peer researched clinical therapies as well as many religions. Proponents of the law of attraction do not campaign for everyone to achieve selfish material gain and wealth. I have not heard or read anyone, no matter what level in their LOA journey that they are at. Their point is about the power of a positive mindset, a principle I am very much a supporter of and as I said, this is not unique to the LOA.

I understand your scepticism about the LOA as I am someone who is open minded about it. However, I kind of lost confidence in your arguments when you started to present basic premises about the LOA incorrectly. For example, the primary focus of the law of attraction is not about material wealth. It is about self development, self love and the journey to self completeness within the context of mindfulness and positive thinking. This is a premise that is widely used within peer researched clinical therapies as well as many religions. Proponents of the law of attraction do not campaign for everyone to achieve selfish material gain and wealth. I have not heard or read anyone, no matter what level in their LOA journey that they are at. Their point is about the power of a positive mindset, a principle I am very much a supporter of and as I said, this is not unique to the LOA.

I understand your scepticism about the LOA as I am someone who is open minded about it. However, I kind of lost confidence in your arguments when you started to present basic premises about the LOA incorrectly. For example, the primary focus of the law of attraction is not about material wealth. It is about self development, self love and the journey to self completeness within the context of mindfulness and positive thinking. This is a premise that is widely used within peer researched clinical therapies as well as many religions. Proponents of the law of attraction do not campaign for everyone to achieve selfish material gain and wealth. I have not heard or read anyone, no matter what level in their LOA journey that they are at. Their point is about the power of a positive mindset, a principle I am very much a supporter of and as I said, this is not unique to the LOA.

Your Achieving your success EXACTLY the way YOU believe it should be attained. I understand how you feel about LOA being pseudoscience and I admire the way you can approach this sticky subject without ruffling the feathers of LOA believers. Money is what most people strive for because of social programming. It isn't even what most of us truly desire. LOA doesn't say everyone will feel the same about the appropriate amount of ACTION which needs to take place. Basing your level of success on the materialistic desires of modern society will of course leave the majority of people "Broke" When you realize the truth of the LOA. You'll see that it's all about "Feelings" which guide us to our ultimate purpose. Which we cannot even describe with any known words in our English language....the word LOVE is as close as we've come to describing it so far in my opinion...May I suggest that it's possible that you have already attracted into your life exactly what it is that you truly want...remember most of what we think is buried in our SUBconscious..maybe Love and understanding or a sense of achievement or FEELING we are headed in the right path is all we want deep down. We can have different approaches to achieve the same end goal. If we do what FEELS right with 100% honesty. Neither of us is on the wrong path of what it is we desire truthfully...Maybe you writing these articles and books resisting the LOA is attracting the very thing it is that you desire truthfully on a subconscious level....People who understand you? friendship? love??…LOA is just like Burger King brother. Have it your subconsciousway!

1- Who bring diseases?
Aids through a doctor's fault
Cancer after chemical using .. Or environment damages caused by humans or bla bla bla
And many ..many..
2- did you know why terrorists became terrorist?
Because they got been used by powerful men or they got fed up from world's injustice
3- who set the perfect diet?the perfect relationship?
Long time ago, science used to consider the "overweight" as the ones who owned the perfect weight...these are standards set by humans..illusions set by human been that made him forget the real essence of life..
When science tried to control the nature or everything..we screwed up...science is something based on theories..and these theories are exposed to changes..so how and why should we relate our lifes to something that was a part of world destruction..science is the best example of the " cause effect" you re most trying to talk about...he is the effect and he is the cause..imagine!!.science found cures because scientists tried to control everything...a refreshing thought dear..science created weapon .."tools of terrorist you re talkin about"
Visualization
Did you know that discovering planes was after they visualized themselves as birds dear...
Did you forget that Newton discovered gravity after the apple fall...
If you cant see..you ll never succeed
Seek the meaning of seeing
Now...do your programs work on people living in third world countries?..no because you were so lucky that you born in an advanced country while we live there..where no plan can be achieved..
Without google, i wouldnt know there is something like as goal achievements and bla bla bal..without technologies you re talking about i wouldnt know that there is injustice!!...just tell me who i should blame that you re in those countries and we born in third countries...btw we used to be equal..but humans got us to this unbalance
So dont judge or criticize people who believe in LOA..because anyone got the right to repair him/her self after we'd been puttin aside when people like you decide to achieve their goals at the expenses of our interest

Hello Rusking,
Thanks for taking the time to comment.
You are obviously well read on the subject of the law of attraction. As such I assume that all of your goals, and dreams have been fulfilled. You are probably sitting on your perfect yacht in the south of France sipping champagne and eating the finest caviar, waiting for your private jet to fly you back to your private island...
I appreciate that man is not advanced enough to understand "the secrets of the universe." However, this law of attraction is not a natural law. It was made up in the late 1800s by men looking to get rich. It was based on what we now know was incorrect science.
My questions:
1) If there is a LOA, why do babies get sick? Why do Tibetan monks get old? Why do happy, innocent children celebrating a birthday get murdered by terrorists?
2) If the LOA is a perfect universal law, then why do we need to understand it for it to work? Why is the success rate at achieving goals only 0.1%? Gravity works 100% of the time whether or not I believe in it Why stick with a scheme that is so ineffective?
3) "Outcome" visualization necessitated by the law of attraction is far less effective than is "process" visualization. This is not my opinion, this has been shown in scientific research.
4) Research also shows that visualizing a "perfect" relationship or "perfect" diet (as mandated by the law of attraction) leads to a greater chance of failure and less motivation.
There are many reasons, many of which I have discussed in the article to not be fooled into believing in a LOA. I am proposing a scientifically-based goal setting program, that is more effective (in scientific research studies) and more motivating.
I do not have a need to sell a program to people who feel they are benefitting from a belief in a LOA. Of course anybody that believes in the LOA shouldn't be reading articles that dispute it's validity - that's negative!

I'll ignore the sarcasm and get right into it.

First off, LoA or whatever you want to call 'it'... what it's really about, at its core, is about tapping into our own power through self-acceptance and unlearning negative beliefs. Pretty much psychology 101.

(I personally stay away from referring to it as LoA due to the misinformation that's out there as well as the shady people trying to make money off of it)

The reason so many people get it wrong is simple, they're not very self aware nor are they very in tune with themselves and what they believe.

And they'll try to use the "LoA" as a way to get more 'things' which really just satisfies ones ego and comes from a place of lack. They use it as a tool, as a means to an end. But it's not a tool, it's more of a "this is how it works" and being consciously aware of how it works can be pretty powerful, just not *necessarily* in the way many would think (red lamborghinis and such).

That being said, here are the answers to your questions:

1) Because there is such a thing as disease and other 'laws' of the universe. Biology doesn't halt just because someone "fully accepts themselves". Totally different modes of being/thinking. They overlap, sure (positive thinking --> faster recovery) but the physical world doesn't just cease to be.

2) You don't need to understand it (it's just that understanding it makes one all the more powerful... it's like the difference between being ignorant and being knowledgeable... when you base your decisions on that knowledge, you can make better decisions. Simple as that.)

Success rate of 0.1%? Where'd you get that statistic? But whatever the actual number, your question is an invalid one. The law of gravity works 100% of the time, except we can fly planes, right? Yes, I know that sounds silly, but it's really to show you how silly YOUR question is because "LoA" works even "negatively" (put in quotations because human perception is what labels things as positive or negative when really, the universe is 'neutral' and things don't happen as a way to punish us... that's just ridiculous, it's not personal).

Whatever the success rate is of achieving goals... that's really just one of the many "LoA" side effects, not LoA itself. Duh. And it largely depends on how people go about it anyway, and we all know how good people are at understanding "LoA"... just look at your own article HAHAHAHAHAHAH (it's pretty damn funny to be honest). Most are looking for shortcuts when they set goals. That's still "LoA" btw... when they don't achieve those goals.

3) What I've learned about the LoA is opposite what you say. I've learned to enjoy the process and take inspired action. To be in the present moment, happy with yourself, and grateful for what you have. So what's this nonsense you're spouting?

4) Hmm... weird again. Dunno what books you've read, but that is totally false. Nothing is perfect and the "LoA" I subscribe to doesn't say what you've described. Visualizing is only one tool of LoA... one which I don't really use. The perfect relationship and perfect diet are total BS. you don't visualize those things, you either build them (a good healthy relationship, not a perfect one) or follow them (a good diet).

Notice how both of those things, in order to have them 'appear' in your life, depend on the relationship one has with themselves:

- If I don't feel worthy, then by default I am insecure... and it makes perfect sense that my relationships will suffer and by definition will NOT be healthy. Doesn't get any easier to understand than that.

- If I don't have much respect for my body and health or I'm stuck in the "fat" mentality, then I won't stick to a good diet. The key isn't to go from 0 to 100 (from eating fast food regularly to becoming vegetarian, for example). The mind cannot make such a huge switch in a short amount of time due to all the patterns one has developed over the years. Again, psychology 101. So simple yet so many get it wrong. There is no "perfect" diet. But when you have enough respect for your body, you would definitely have the motivation to stick to transition (

First of all, the reason many people don't get the LoA to work for them is because of subconscious programming.
People think that it's just about your words. Wrong. It's about how your subconscious mind thinks about it. We were born saying that we need to struggle to get to what we want. This is not always true. We were put into that mindset of struggling a lot of times that it started to take over our life.

Whatever you did was the result of LoA too. You didn't believe in that stuff initially did you? Your article has the keypoints that many people miss upon when they are coming across the LoA. This article can explain where people make mistakes in the LoA.

And NOT EVERYTHING is your fault. As a psychologist, you should know that we have 65000 thoughts a day and most of them are not conscious. In that case how are you supposed to know that you were thinking so subconsciously? (SUBCONSCIOUS thoughts matter too!). In fact, LoA users use their subconscious mind as a great asset. The truth about the law of attraction is actually simple.

Things happen faster when you let go and be patient. If you keep worrying about it, you are thinking about lack. if you let go of it, there's no resistance. What's there to block you? I like the example of gravity that Supernova gave us about the plane notion. we can still fly planes despite gravity. Otherwise without gravity we would keep ascending into the depths of space! The same way, you can attract nothing despite LoA actually attracting it for you.. Adding to this, there is still the force of gravity acting on the plane but the net resultant force is upwards. The same way, you think the law of attraction won't work for you but in fact it's the law of attraction giving you the stuff that is needed in order to change your mindset that it will not work for you and hence go to the default issue that many people have. You have the thought that it doesn't work for you. However, if you change that mindsetby looking for proof that it does, you will see that the law of attraction helps you MUCH MUCH MORE.

If a professor in Japan proved that words affect the way water crystals form, our . body is 70% water. So is the earth. Most of earth is water. Makes sense why the LoA works now? Look it up online. Also look up above the observer effect.

I would like to hear what you have to say, but the manner in which you present yourself doesn't come from a place of intelligence, it seems. It seems that it's more personal, or why would you be acting like that? There's no need to be condescending or get "rattled" like it seems you are, especially if you have all those titles on your name.

After reading some of your article and your answer to this commenter I realized even though you read all the books you have very little understanding of LOA.
The goal isn't to amass wealth, cars and material stuff, it is to be happy no matter your situation. When you accomplish that then the physical things you desire will come more easily.
This is simplified of course to make it easier for you to understand..

I would also want to share my experience with one of the eBook I read, it explains the Meditation indeed has positive effects not only in the body but also in the mind, this book has explain how the people became rich using meditation and subconscious mind and Motivate You To Achieve Anything easily in your life,
read the full article from this link ( go2l.ink/manifest )

I sharing my experience with one of the eBook I read, it explains the Meditation indeed has positive effects not only in the body but also in the mind, this book has explain how the people became rich using meditation and subconscious mind and Motivate You To Achieve Anything easily in your life,
read the full article from here ( go2l.ink/manifest )

There is no way you read every LOA book out there. You couldn't even have read Esther Hicks. You are missing just about single facet of the teachings possible. You say it is anecdotal, but your comments on the topic are anecdotal. Every critic always jumps to something such as thinking about a sports car or why people suffer.
If the teaching were really understood, not one of your comments would have weight.

Manifestation Miracle changed the game for me. My life before was very scattered. I had a direction, got thrown off course again and again and was close to giving up at times. Although my acting career was taking off, my health was heading downhill.
With program’s framework, I was able to release limiting beliefs and damaging negative thoughts. Now I have a sense of calm to know that stressing over current situations isn’t going to move me in the right direction and was harming me mentally and physically.
In no time, I manifested the right people and circumstances to fully heal and become a true FORCE OF NATURE. This program is great for people to get out of a rut and change their perceptions of life’s abundance.

I run a blog that is totally not-for-profit and has no commercial aims whatsoever (unconventional wisdom, uk site). You might like to check out my post on the law of attraction (entitled 'A new religion is growing: belief in the law of attraction and human 'energies') which reviews the scientific claims of the LoA.

Unfortunately, this author has an extremely superficial understanding of the LOA. While he may claim to have read all of the books, he clearly didn't understand them. He really isn't to blame as unfortunately many of the books written on the LOA are written by people that do not fully understand it themselves. The statement that positive thoughts always bring positive things is a faulty premise that is not at the basis of the LOA.

In sum, he does not believe in it, therefore evidence of its existence cannot come into his experience and he filters the information he does see to confirm his beliefs and his conviction that the LOA isn't true grows bigger. That is the law of attraction in action.

I do hope that the people who read this article will be guided by their inner wisdom to search for the truth.

Dear Anonymous,
Thanks for your comments. Since you obviously have advanced knowledge on how to use a law of attraction, I assume that you have achieved all of your goals and fulfilled all of your dreams. Now you are a very rich millionaire trying to help the rest of us. Actually, you wouldn't be doing that because as LOA founder Wallace Wattles said "do not talk about poverty...do not spend your time in charitable work,...all charity only tends to perpetuate the wretchedness it aims to eradicate."

You are correct that I do not believe in a law of attraction. This is not an emotional argument. It is based on scientific research on mind-brain science, visualization, focusing on perfection, mindfulness, and positive psychology.

You claim that "positive thoughts always resulting in positive things" is not the basis of the LOA. In part you are correct. The foundational basis in science, as I alluded to in the article was that thought stuff particles travel through ether (not air) and interact with formless stuff to create whatever it is that you are thinking about. This was how "the law" started.
The original creators of the law of attraction going back to the 1880s including Prentice Mulford,James Allen, Thomas Troward, William Walker Atkinson, Bruce MacLelland, Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, and W. Clement Stone promoted the belief that this is a universal law in which you attract only what you are thinking about. Modern LOA proponents such as Rhonda Byrne, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Joe Vitale, The Hicks family, and many others have stated similar beliefs.

Please tell me why you don't believe that Positive only attracts Positive is not an essential component of the LOA and what original sources you are referencing to support this claim.

The fact that we build evidence to support our beliefs is not evidence that a law of attraction exists. Why do innocent babies attract negativity that causes them to be in the ICU with fatal illnesses? Why do happy children get hit by cars or murdered by terrorists? Why do people who cheat and lie and abuse others, sometimes prosper and become leaders in society? If we are using anecdotal evidence to support claims, I will have plenty of examples.
Positive thoughts lead to positive attitudes and positive behaviors. Positive people have more friends, better relationships, better jobs, get more promotions, are healthier and have improved immune systems. This is positive psychology, not a metaphysical phenomenon. It forms the basis of a Principle of Attraction in which Like tends to and often attracts Like...but not always.
You can read more about it in my book.
https://www.amazon.com/Throw-Away-Your-Vision-Board/dp/1507847300/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

Besides being catty, unprofessional and angry in your long rant, you also seemed to have distorted what those books on law of attraction said, or you didn't understand them.

Do you know everything about everything? Where we go after we die and all that? Maybe there are things you don't. To answer some of your questions: reincarnation, the mind-body connection and the fact that most people pretend to be happy because it's more socially acceptable would explain a lot of them Mr. Knowitall.

Mr. Knowitall (Jesse Taylor),
Thank you for taking the time to criticize me. My day was not complete until I received your critical evaluation of my emotional state and my lack of intellect.

As a mind-reader, you should try to ATTRACT a different job, since in no way do I have any anger towards anyone with erroneous beliefs. I do feel sorry for you, but this is not anger. This is a free country and free society and you are free to believe anything you desire and free to waste your time as you see fit. You can smoke cigarettes as well. They will harm you and that is your choice. Same as a belief in a LOA.

As a friend of mine says, don't try too hard to help those who are putting their faith in useless methods, in the end it leaves more for those who are actually working towards achieving their goals and not depending on the universe to give it to you.

No, Jesse, I do not believe that I know everything. Nor have I ever claimed to even know a billionth of everything. I do not know where we go after we die. As far as I know, I have never died before - although who knows? Apparently, you know the answers to these questions. We are reincarnated? Ok. I guess I'll take your word for it. Just like I'll take your word for it that the LOA exists...and the moon is made of cheese? And Santa?

I'm not trying to convince you of anything because you have a faith-based system in which you believe, rely on and have been able to achieve every goal of which you've ever dreamt. Congratulations.

My article was meant for those people with open minds who, like LOA expert John Assaraf has stated are the 99.9% that have not succeeded in using the LOA.

I do not claim to know the right way and it certainly isn't the only way. There are many paths to success. I am just not wasting my time on a fictitious law that has such a low return rate. My techniques have provided me with abundance and I am trying to help others do the same.

Jesse,
I was thinking the same. I've never heard a "professional" man of his age, speaking like such a catty little 15 year old girl. If you read all the comments you can see how he speaks down to/mocks every person who disagrees with him, while sarcastically throwing little digs in wherever he can. I came to this article looking for evidence to discredit the LOA. I just can't seem to take anything he wrote seriously because of his unprofessionalism. Very narrsassitic.

Neil, in an earlier comment you said that people who believe in LOA are people who believe in/believe with faith, then followed by saying you like to do scientific research and look at the data to make your decisions. Now you're saying this:

"The original creators of the law of attraction going back to the 1880s including Prentice Mulford,James Allen, Thomas Troward, William Walker Atkinson, Bruce MacLelland, Wallace Wattles, Napoleon Hill, Earl Nightingale, and W. Clement Stone promoted the belief that this is a universal law in which you attract only what you are thinking about. Modern LOA proponents such as Rhonda Byrne, Jack Canfield, Bob Proctor, John Assaraf, Joe Vitale, The Hicks family, and many others have stated similar beliefs."

ummm...

Finding that online is not scientific proof. We're you alive in 1880? Did you meet any of these people? Did they tell you why they made the LOA concept?

The answer is no.

You really don't know for sure. Neither does anyone that believes in LOA. None of us we're there. Who knows if it even happened.

But don't call yourself a guy that likes to look at the "data" when you can;t even prove the data yourself.

"Finding that online is not scientific proof. We're you alive in 1880? Did you meet any of these people? Did they tell you why they made the LOA concept?"

People living today have the same access to the original creators' texts online as people in 1880 had in printed books. It's exactly the same material. You're essentially arguing against yourself because asserting that no one knows for sure about it would have to apply to the people in 1880 as well. Your argument is an appeal to ignorance, which is a logical fallacy. The text in the creators' books is precisely the data he's referring to, a intellectual creation that has absolutely no scientific basis.

"When you start trusting data with no proof...your a person of FAITH.." That's blind faith, which is utterly reliable. A person is stronger in faith when it is substantiated by knowledge, which itself is supported by data and facts.

"Just like everyone else" Not to say that faith is a bad thing, it certainly isn't. But that's a generalization, your second logical fallacy. There's certainly quite a few in the world who are not people of faith.

Not a shameless plug just a tip from someone who is been studying this "stuff" for over 16 years and getting amazing results in my life. Not caviar and yachts...but things has changed tremendously in my life since applying these principles.

I get wrapped up in the day-to-day nonsense just like everyone else and get carried away with spending more time thinking about what I don't want them what I do. But when I do get focused and think on purpose... things change dramatically in an instant. I can give many examples.

And trust me when the day comes when I decide that I do want caviar and yachts... believe me I will get them.

Stacy,
Thank you for your comments. Hard to be positive when talking about the LOA. It's focus on blaming is pervasive. I am a positive psychologist and have proposed a new way of looking at attraction called the Principle of Attraction. As a Principle, like tends to attract like. Positive thoughts, feelings, actions, and words often attracts positivity...but not always. It's not a law, it's a principle, based on positive and social psychology.
Please check out my book and read more about it....and stay positive.
https://www.amazon.com/Throw-Away-Your-Vision-Board/dp/1507847300/ref=asap_bc?ie=UTF8

That's like the doctor saying to the hopeful family member of a dying loved one "expect the worst and hope for the best" good luck with that! Perfect example of LOA proving to you there is no LOA. Like attracts like. You clearly don't believe in LOA so the universe is serving you that proof on a silver platter. Plain and simple.

Hey I have an idea!

Let's see which one of us can prove there is no gravity....laws are laws my friend. No changing that.

Thanks Minn,
I completely agree with you. If you look at the first two comments above it's easy to see that this is a religious/faith-based issue.It invokes deep-seated emotional fervor and believers are not willing to look at this with open eyes. Yet they criticize that those who don't believe are closed-minded.
Thanks for commenting. I appreciate some supportive words on the practical side of the fence.
Please check out my book on Amazon, Throw Away Your Vision Board for more information about this subject.
Thanks!

There's an old saying, perhaps you've heard it, "consider the source"? Do you not see the irony in your criticism of LOA, classifying it as a "pseudoscience", with your employer being PSYCHOLOGY TODAY? if I'm not mistaken, has the field of psychology itself, in It's infancy as well as today, not been debunked, by "actual science", referring to it also as "pseudoscience"?

Hello Jennifer,
Yes, I am familiar with that phrase, although not sure how it applies to this situation. I am the source and you would like me to consider myself? I do not have an employer. Psychology Today provides a forum for articles and discussions. They do not hire me or pay me. They are not the source of this information. I take full responsibility for the content.

Your second point is an interesting discussion. You are correct that in its infancy, psychology was criticized for claiming to be a scientific field and not living up to that assertion by performing quality research. I believe that this question has been put to rest as the rigors of publishing in psychology require randomized, double-blind, placebo controlled trials.

It would be impossible to publish research in any respectable peer-reviewed psychology journal that was not up to this high standard with concomitant rigorous statistical analyses. These are the standards in psychology. When someone comes up with a new theory in psychology or any other science, for that theory to be of any use, it has to be able to make predictions and those predictions have to be verifiable. If there is no way to disprove a theory, it can explain everything that happens, yet it doesn't predict anything specific that can be tested, it is considered a poor theory.

Finally, the term pseudoscience refers to beliefs that are based mistakenly on scientific method. Psychology is based on scientific method, whether you respect that or not is your choice.
I am trained as a "hard science" PhD in Pharmacology and do understand scientific method. The LOA is not based on scientific method and the erroneous conclusions in metaphysics are based on incorrect scientific assumptions. These assumptions may have seemed reasonable in the 1800s that there was no air around us, only ether and that thoughts only transmit through ether. Perhaps this assumption is correct, however we are not surrounded by ether.
Classifying LOA practice as metaphysical pseudoscience is absolutely appropriate.

It's curious that people who believe in a LOA are critical of those who don't and believe them to be close-minded. I have presented a lot of new data such as the erroneous science and the data showing that acting as though you had already accomplished your goals was detrimental to you doing so. Yet, LOA proponents do not look at this with an open mind and reconsider their belief system. In this way LOA is akin to a faith-based religion, except that religious beliefs can't be disproven.

Great article Neil! The biggest misconception about the law of attraction is people just think all you need to do is visualize and you will get what you want,we all have limiting beliefs which are chains holding us back from manifesting what we want,we’ve gotten these limiting beliefs when we were young from our parents,friends,relatives ,e.g if you’ve always been told by your parents “money doesnt grow on trees” and that becomes a deep rooted limiting belief ,its going to be hard to visualize and attract money into your life unless you get rid of the limiting beliefs, I discovered a method from a blog that showed me how to get rid of any limiting beliefs that you may have and started attracting what i wanted in just a few days ,here's the link if you want to learn how to do the same: instantlawofattraction.com/law-of-attraction-breakthrough/

Hello Diana,
Thank you for taking the time to read the article and make a thoughtful comment.
I've been through the training, read all of the reasons from many different authors and coaches as to why it is so difficult to invoke and manifest. My question for you is now that you've learned how to "get rid of any limiting belief and can attract what you want" what is it that you truly want?

Some personal questions that you don't have to answer on this site but to think about. Is your house paid off? If you have children, are all of their college tuitions completely paid for? Are you still working at a job? If so, is that because you'd rather be working there than on a long vacation to your favorite places? Are you driving a brand new (fill in the name of your favorite car here)? Are all your hopes, dreams, and wishes coming true?

Since a dollar and a million dollars are the same to the universe, would it be correct to assume that you have an abundance of wealth? This is what the founders of the law of attraction said was the most important thing to attract.
I appreciate that you have unlocked the key to success and have everything that you have ever dreamed of. You are wealthy beyond belief and live in a house so big that the servant staff and cooking staff get lost trying to find you.

Or, like most people who claim to have found the way to manifest things through the LOA, is it that you truly don't want big things, new things, nice cars, paid off mansions, kids' schools paid for, permanent paid vacations, etc. If you wanted them, you know you could manifest them, you are just not that interested in those things right now. That's the typical response.

I do not claim to have all of those things either. However, I do have most of the things that I described and I managed to attain them through my value-based goals, plans, process-visualizations, and inspired action. I didn't ask the universe for it, you might say that the universe knew, but I was driven to get these things. I didn't act or pretend like I already had them.

College students looking for a job are more likely to get hired faster and get better paying jobs if they visualize how and where they will apply (Farber's Key to Achieve Principles) as compared to visualizing having the perfect job (LOA). Obese women lose weight using process visualization and gain weight using LOA visualization.

In the end, if you are happy believing in a LOA, I am happy for you. If you have convinced yourself that you currently have everything that you want, congratulations! You have arrived. If not, please check out my book, Throw Away Your Vision Board.

The Law of Attraction is a deep subject and you seem to only have a very superficial understanding of it paired with a closed mind. The reason most people aren't excellent at it is that most people have very deep seated beliefs about limits and have a lot of fearful thoughts that they pick up from society. Even babies pick up and mimic the negative moods of those around them.

The second thing I noticed was that the three reviewers of your book look like paid reviews. They all reviewed a handful of books, gave them all 5 stars and a few generic details you could glean from the description and gushed how super amazing all the books were. None were a verified purchase and they were all on the same day.

Well, congratulations doc. I had thought that I'd heard all of the possible excuses for maintaining a belief in a law of attraction.
However, your explanation of why children and babies get sick or murdered or abused is because they pick up bad thoughts from adults???

1 day old babies with congenital heart disease who die during surgery and your law of attraction tells you to blame the babies because they heard parental negativity in the womb?

To be clear, as a practitioner of the law of attraction, you believe that what you think, you attract. All victims of wrongdoing and illness have brought thins on themselves. Rape victims, Cancer victims. Hurricane victims. Victims of 9/11. Holocaust victims. Newborn babies with fatal illnesses.
It's all their faults. This is what I tried to explain in the Blame the Victim section of the article. I thank you for being an example of this dangerous form of thinking.

When I tell people that this is what it really means to believe in a law of attraction, they don't believe me. They say, that's ridiculous. We don't control everything in the universe. But you are a perfect example of the negative, blame the victim side of the LOA. I understand, appreciate, and respect that maintaining this perspective is consistent with your beliefs in the LOA. My personal belief is that this is not healthy for you, others with whom you connect, or for society in general.

May the law of attraction give you what you deserve for blaming others.

most people are pretty out of touch with how they really feel so I'm not surprised most suck at l.o.a. but since the law is always effecting us it's worth it to keep working on getting better at doing it

you seemed to really cherry pick quotes and present half truths from loa writers to support your belief

if you'd listened closely and at length abe hicks talked about taking inspired action after using loa, not no action ever

wallace wattles is not god. just because a teacher of a subject says something dumb like don't help the poor ever doesn't mean the whole subject they teach is worthless. but it's true that if you surround yourself with low achieving struggling people it will effect you differently than the opposite and if you think about illness and victimhood most of the time it will effect you differently than health and power

you seem too black or white in your thinking of the loa tips and too quick to find fault and dismiss

LOA is one of those things that just baffles me as to why people buy into it. It literally amounts to nothing more substantial than, "Close your eyes, cross your fingers, and wish on a star, then alllllll your dreams will come truuuuuue!" It survives on the average person's ignorance of advanced science and their tendency to assume that someone using big words and "sciencey-sounding" concepts must know what they're talking about.

I suppose it's because of the tempting idea that there are "cheat codes" to life, that you get to be in on a super special secret, the same reason people in conspiracy theories - they can't just accept the fact that life really is just this difficult and boring and there's no easy way out. It seems to much more prevalent in women than men too.

And no, "But science is sooooooooo mysterious, we can't know for sure..." is not a legitimate argument. REAL science states that you DO NOT believe that something is true UNTIL it has been positively proven, NOT that you treat as if it is because "maybe." And no again, doing so is NOT "keeping an open mind" - keeping an open mind means accepting things for good reasons, not "just because." That's called "being a gullible sucker."

Despite the fact that your post is well-written, and your claims have a nice fundament, I still disagree. In my opinion this topic is a bit more complicated, then it might seem from first sight.
For example, this girl explained this matter quite right in my opinion - https://vladagilburt.blogspot.co.il/2016/10/why-law-of-attraction-isnt-working-for.html, and also she talked separately about The Secret, and it's obviously worth your attention - https://vladagilburt.blogspot.co.il/2016/10/how-secret-can-drive-you-crazy.html.

I think that it purely depends on you - if you give it a chance, and you do everything right, then it will work for you, if you don't... well, then it won't :)

The existence of scientific data and validity and soundness of facts are not subject to opinion. We can have subjective opinions about them, but scientific data continue to exist and facts remain true whether we believe in them or not.